History Transfer Credit

The History Department’s transfer credit officer, Dr. Matt Andrews, will be glad to evaluate any history courses that you have taken at other colleges or universities or while on a study abroad program for UNC history credit. This includes history courses that have already been transferred by the Admissions Office, but only received general elective credit. Please read the following information carefully. If you have any additional questions after you finish reading and following the relevant links, you may contact Dr. Andrews at:andrewsm@email.unc.edu.

Course Re-Evaluations: If you would like to have a course that you have taken at another college or university re-evaluated for history credit, please go to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions “Re-Evaluation of Transfer Credit” page, which can be found here.

Remember, you must submit the actual course syllabus (not just a course description) with the Transfer Credit Re-Evaluation Form. If you cannot submit an electronic copy of the syllabus with the online form, please put a hard copy (keep a copy for yourself) in Dr. Andrews’s mailbox in the History Department Office (5th floor of Hamilton Hall) along with a brief note including your name and PID #. In addition, you should also attach a note to the Transfer Re-Evaluation Form indicating that a hard copy of the syllabus will be sent directly to Dr. Andrews. You may also bring it to him in his office in Hamilton 515. Without a syllabus, it is very difficult and often impossible to make a recommendation for history credit.

In rare cases, Dr. Andrews may require other materials (papers, exams, notes, etc.) or ask you to meet with him in person to discuss the course further. He may also refer the course to a member of the History Department faculty who specializes in the subject or teaches similar courses at UNC. In that case, he will always defer to the recommendation of the faculty specialist.

After he has evaluated your course, Dr. Andrews will send his recommendation to the Office of Undergraduate Curricula. If the History Department does not offer an equivalent history course, you may still receive 100- or 200-level history major or minor credit if the course meets certain criteria (see below).

Please Note: The History Department is not authorized to determine how transfer courses that do not have numbered equivalent courses (e.g. HIST 127) may be used to fulfill requirements of the General Education Curriculum. It can only determine how such courses may be used to meet history major or minor requirements. If the History Department determines that a transfer course does not have a numbered UNC history course equivalent, but you would still like it to fulfill a requirement of the General Education Curriculum, you must submit a petition to the Office of Undergraduate Curriculum (petitions cannot be submitted for courses that are rejected for credit). Information about how to submit such a petition can be found at:

The History Department bases its recommendations for history transfer credit on the actual content, number of contact hours (at least 35 hours for 3 hours of credit), and requirements (reading, exams, papers, etc.) of the transfer course being evaluated. For a transfer course to receive 200-level (upper/advanced level) credit, it should deal with a more complex or specific subject matter (i.e., it should not be a survey course) and require a reading load of least 4–6 books (or an equivalent number of articles) as well as at least 10 typed pages of out-of-class writing. 100-level (lower/introductory level) credit is usually recommended for survey courses that require less reading and writing, but still some forms of assessment (exams, quizzes, short papers, etc.).

The History Department only accepts courses for history major or minor credit that are taught in other history departments. Courses a with historical focus, content, or approach that are taught in any other department (for example, Political Science or Sociology), whether at UNC or another institution, may not receive history credit that can count toward the major or minor.

In some cases, the History Department offers a course that is the rough equivalent of the course you took at another school. For example, UNC HIST 127 (American History to 1865) is often the equivalent of other schools’ survey courses that cover the first half of American history. In that case, you would likely (but not always) receive credit for UNC HIST 127. If, however, the History Department does not offer an equivalent to the course you are seeking credit for, it may still receive history major or minor credit at the 100- or 200-level credit in a specific field. For example, if you took a course titled “The History of Nigeria,” which we do not offer, you might receive, depending on the course’s requirements, three hours of 100- or 200-level in the history major concentration of Third World/non-Western history that could be applied toward meeting the requirements of the history major or minor only.